"BRENDAN
SMYTH: NOT ALL Irish priests in the 1960s and 1970s were as enthralled
by silence as Fr Seán Brady, it would appear. He had been “part of an unhelpful
culture of deference and silence in society, and the Church . . . ” he said on
Wednesday.

Not
so Fr Bruno Mulvihill.

From
the late 1960s he tried to have child abuse by Fr Brendan Smyth addressed
through direct contact with two papal nuncios, one bishop, an abbot-general and
two abbots. He might as well have stayed as silent as Fr Brady.

Fr
Mulvihill joined the Norbertine congregation, of which Fr Brendan Smyth was a
member, in 1963. From 1968 onwards he tried to have something done about his
colleague. Some of this was recalled on the UTV Counterpoint programme Suffer
Little Children, broadcast in October 1994.

There
he produced a letter he sent to the bishop of Kilmore, Francis McKiernan, dated
November 1st, 1974. In it he disclosed how “ever since 1964 I have known that a
member of the community, Fr Brendan Smyth, is misbehaving: he is molesting
children who attend bingo sessions. Two of them who are superficially known to
me have told me about their troubles.” He “brought this matter to the attention
of the abbot but to no avail”.

...In
a statement to gardaí of June 1995, Fr Mulvihill recalled his attempts to raise
his concerns about Fr Smyth with papal nuncio Alibrandi and Bishop McKiernan at
a 1974 function in Kilnacrott. Archbishop Alibrandi “was not interested”. Bishop
McKiernan “showed no interest”.

So
he then wrote to both.

Fr
Mulvihill left the priesthood in frustration. He went to Germany, where he died
in a car crash in October 2004. He was 59.

It
is estimated that, between 1945 and 1989, Fr Brendan Smyth sexually abused and
indecently assaulted 117 children in Ireland. The number of victims in the US
and other countries is unknown."

MILWAUKEE -- "Despite warning signs that they
would not win the fight to oust their priests, parishioners in a small Wisconsin
town didn't relent. Neither did their bishop, Robert Morlino of
Madison. After battling for almost two years, members of St. Mary Parish
in Platteville were told by Morlino on April 25 that if they persisted in what
he characterized as spreading "rumors and gossip," the Catholics would face some
of the church's harshest sanctions: the denial of the sacraments of Communion,
confession and burial."

In the week since the Vatican published its harmful "assessment" against the
Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), Catholics across the
country are speaking out like never before!The
pressure on the Vatican is building. Word is spreading from the New York Times to the
BBC and nearly 25,000 people have signed the petition in support of
the sisters!Can we push it to 30,000? It's up to
you.Forward this emailwith the petition and invite your friends
to sign it before it is delivered!Also,
save the date of Tuesdays in May! The sisters have announced they are
meeting the last week of May after Pentecost to pray and discern their response
to the Vatican. Until then, Catholics across the country will be gathering every
Tuesday night, starting May 8th, in front of cathedrals and other sites to pray
and witness in support of the sisters. More details to follow!The
sisters have supported us, it is time for us to support them!With
thanks,Jim FitzGerald, Executive Director

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

"Once again, we
watch dumbfounded as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith directs a
"doctrinal assessment of" or a “calling attention to” or the “punishment of”
those who, according to the CDF, break away from the proper observance of
Catholic doctrine. Only this time, the CDF is not pointing an accusatory finger
at a person, but rather at an institution that brings together and represents
more than 55,000 women religious in the United States - namely, the Leadership
Conference of Women Religious, known by its acronym LCWR.

Throughout their
long history, these women religious developed and continue to develop a broad
educational mission which advances the dignity of many people and groups both
within and beyond the United States.Most of these
women belong to diverse national and international congregations.

In addition to
their Christian and humanistic formation, they are intellectuals and
professionals in various fields of knowledge. They are writers, philosophers,
biologists, sociologists, lawyers and theologians. They have broad backgrounds
and their expertise is recognized nationally and internationally. They also are
educators, catechists and human rights activists. In many situations, they set
their lives at the service of those affected by injustice or set themselves in
opposition to the grave actions taken by the government of the United States. I
had the honor of meeting some of them who were arrested and imprisoned because
they put themselves at the forefront of demonstrations to close the School of
the Americas, an institution of the United States government that prepares
soldiers from our countries to act in repressive and cruel ways.

These religious
are women of reflection and action with a long history of service not only in
their country, but in many others. Today they are under suspicion and under the
supervision of the Vatican. They are being criticized for disagreeing with the
bishops who are considered to be the "authentic teachers of faith and morals."
In addition, they are accused of being supporters of radical feminism, of
deviating from Roman Catholic doctrine, of complicity in the approval of
homosexual unions and other charges which are surprising given their
anachronistic nature.

Exactly what
would constitute radical feminism? And what might be its real manifestations in
the lives of congregations of women religious? Exactly what kinds of theological
deviations are affecting the lives of women religious? And might it be that we
are being scrutinized and punished as women because we can no longer be true to
ourselves and to the tradition of the Gospel by means of blind submission to a
male hierarchical order? Might it be that those responsible for Vatican
Congregations are out of touch with the vast worldwide feminist revolution that
has touched every continent and even religious congregations?

Many women
religious in the United States and other countries are indeed the heirs,
teachers and disciples of one of the most interesting expressions of worldwide
feminism, specifically feminist theology which developed in the United States
during the late 1960s. Its original ideas, critical analyses and liberating
stances made possible a new way of doing theology which in turn continues to
accompany movements of women's emancipation. As a consequence, women religious
have contributed to a rethinking of our Christian religious tradition by taking
us beyond the invisibility and oppression of women. They also created
alternative venues for education and formation. They wrote theological and
inspirational texts so that the tradition of the Jesus Movement could continue
to nurture our present and would not be abandoned by thousands of persons made
weary by the weight of patriarchal religious structures and rules.

What actions can
be taken given these curial and administrative examples of anachronism and
symbolic violence on the part of the Roman Catholic Church? What are we to think
of these rigid philosophical referents that ascribe to the masculine what is
considered best in the human being? What can be said about a unilateral and
misogynistic anthropological vision out of which the tradition of Jesus is
interpreted? What are we to think about this administrative/ punitive treatment
from which an archbishop is appointed to review, guide and approve decisions
taken by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious as if we were incapable of
insight and lucidity?

Are we simply a
multinational capitalist enterprise the "products" of which should be in
conformity with the dictates of a single line of production? And to maintain
this enterprise, should we be controlled like robots by those who consider
themselves the owners and guardians of the institution? Where is the freedom,
the charity, the historical creativity, the fraternal and sisterly love? At the
same time that indignation takes hold of us, a sense of fidelity to our dignity
as women and to the Gospel as proclaimed to the poor and marginalized invites us
to respond to this act of repugnant injustice.

In today’s
world, the prelates and church officials use a double standard. On the one hand,
there are high-level examples of the Roman Catholic Church being able to welcome
back into its bosom groups on the far-right whose harmful history, especially
with regard to adolescents and children is widely known. I think especially of
Marcial Maciel, founder of the in the Legionaries of Christ (Mexico) or the
religious followers of Archbishop Lefevre (Switzerland) whose disobedience to
the pope and coercive methods of making disciples is verified by many. The same
institutional church welcomes men who are interested in it for power and
repudiates women that it wants to keep submissive. By means of this attitude, it
exposes women to ridiculous criticisms that are voiced in the Catholic religious
media in bad faith. Among these women, the prelates seem to formally recognize
the merits of those whose actions are among those traditionally exercised by
women religious in schools and hospitals. But is this all that we are? We know
of very few instances in the United States where women religious were involved
in the abuse of young children, adolescents and elders. No public denunciation
tarnished their image. No one ever spoke of them allying themselves with major
international banks for their own benefit. No complaints are found of
insider-trading or the exchange of favors so as to preserve the silence of
impunity. And yet, in contrast to men of power, so few of them have been
beatified or canonized by Church authorities. Still, the recognition of these
women comes from so many communities and groups, Christian and otherwise, who
shared in the lives and works of so many of them. And of course, these groups
will not be silenced by this unjust "doctrinal assessment" that touches them
directly as well.

Plagiarizing
Jesus in the Gospel, I dare to say, "I pity these men" who do not know
the contradictions and beauties of life up close, who do not allow their hearts
to be broken open by the joys and sufferings of the people, who do not love the
present moment, who still prefer to enforce strict laws rather than to celebrate
life. All they have learned are the fixed rules of a doctrine determined by an
outdated rationality from which they judge the faith of others, especially
women.

Perhaps they
think that God approves of them and submits to them and to their lucubrations,
so distant from those who hunger for bread and for justice, the hungry, the
abandoned, the prostituted, the abused and the forgotten. How long must we
suffer under their yoke? What attitudes and stances will inspire us as "the
Spirit that blows where it wills" so that we may continue to be faithful to the
LIFE that is in us?

To my dear
sisters in the United States of LCWR, my gratitude, affection and solidarity. If
you are being persecuted for the good that you do probably your work will
produce good and abundant fruit. Know that with you, women religious from other
continents will not allow them to silence our voice. But, if they silence us by
a written decree, it will give us one more reason to continue in the struggle
for human dignity and the freedom for which we have been created. We will
continue to proclaim in countless ways the love of neighbor as the key to human
and cosmic communion present in the tradition of Jesus of Nazareth and in many
others, though in diverse ways. In this historical moment, we will continue to
weave together one more part of the vast history of the affirmation of freedom,
the right to be different and to think differently and in through
allthis endeavoring
not to be afraid to be happy."

Who
is Nun Justice?The Nun Justice Project
is a grassroots movement supported by the Women's Ordination Conference and
Catholic justice organizations.

Our
goal is to reach 57,000 signatures - one for each US sister, to
be delivered to the US Catholic Bishops in June. It is up to you to
continue to spread the word and maintain this pressure on the Vatican.Share the petition on your Facebook page!

Save the date!
The Nun Justice Project is organizing weekly vigils across the country, each Tuesday
from May 8th - May 29th in support of our sisters and LCWR. More
information to come! If you're interested in coordinating a vigil in your
area please email: nunjustice@gmail.com

Watch this space!Media kits, prayers,
and photographs of local actions will be made available soon on the website:
nunjustice.tumblr.com

The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests celebrates the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and the nearly 60,000 women religious they represent in the United States. We reject the unjust, bullying behavior of the scandal-ridden Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith who has ordered the LCWR to reform itself more closely to “the teachings and discipline of the Church.” It is the corrupt hierarchy, who has spent billions of dollars and devastated the lives of thousands of youth in the sexual abuse crisis that needs reform, not the dedicated nuns in the United States.

Now is the time for the LCWR to speak truth to power. Declare a nuns’ emancipation proclamation from Vatican control. Challenge Vatican misogyny publicly. Affirm primacy of conscience and gender equality including women's ordination.

"As a Sister for Christian Community, I belong to an independent community of women religious not under Vatican control," Bridget Mary Meehan reflects, “This means that I am blessed with freedom to live my vocation as a woman priest. "

Nuns who are called by God and their communities should be able to serve as priests.

“Religious communities of women have been the backbone of the church and the heart that pumps hope through the life of the church,” said newly ordained woman priest Miriam Picconi of Palm Coast, Florida.

In the Biblical prophetic tradition the sisters have devoted their lives to living Gospel justice and reading the signs of the times. They have heard the cries of the poor, the exploited and the abandoned. Lifting oppression and birthing community and right relations, women religious have been at work transforming the world.

We as women priests express our gratitude to the sisters, our mentors and teachers who have been inspired by the Spirit. They have re-discovered and reaffirmed in us the Feminine Wisdom of God. They have blessed the love and commitment of same-sex partnerships. They have encouraged us women called to priesthood to live out our call. They have been prophetic voices for the liberating activity of the Spirit in our church and world. We stand in prayerful solidarity with all nuns and the LCWR in time of crisis. May women religious lead the church into a new beginning of justice and equality!

The Vatican is ordering Catholic sisters to join the
Religious Right in waging culture war instead of focusing their energies on
helping the poor and healing the sick.

All across the country, Catholic women religious are
on the front lines of health care, education, and other critical social
services.But now that the sisters are enduring a crackdown from the church
hierarchy, we need to show that millions of everday people of faith are standing
with them.

..." Catholic women in the US today are also vastly more
educated, competent, and professional than Catholic women of any previous
generations. Think here, if you will, of Nancy Pelosi, recent occupant of the
highest position of power a woman has held in the history of the US government.
Think of Kathleen Sebelius. Think, for that matter, of me. We Catholic women
understand the enormous debt we owe our sisters, and we are not pleased to have
their faith denigrated in such a vile fashion even as they move into old
age.

To paraphrase Sister Simone Campbell, I don’t think the boys have any idea
what they’re in for."

Even as Republicans try to wrestle women into chastity belts, the Vatican is trying to muzzle American nuns.

Who thinks it’s cool to bully nuns? While continuing to heal and
educate, the community of sisters is aging and dying out because few
younger women are willing to make such sacrifices for a church
determined to bring women to heel.

Yet the nuns must be yanked into line by the crepuscular, medieval men who run the Catholic Church.

“It’s not terribly unlike the days of yore when they singled out
people in the rough days of the Inquisition,” said Kenneth Briggs, the
author of “Double Crossed: Uncovering the Catholic Church’s Betrayal of
American Nuns.”

How can the church hierarchy be more offended by the nuns’
impassioned advocacy for the poor than by priests’ sordid pedophilia?

How do you take spiritual direction from a church that seems to be losing its soul?..."

...."Somehow the Philadelphia church leaders decided that the Rev.
Thomas Smith was not sexually motivated when he made boys strip and be
whipped playing Christ in a Passion play. Somehow they decided an altar
boy who said he was raped by two priests and his fifth-grade teacher was
not the one in need of protection.

Instead of looking deep into its own heart and soul, the church is
going after the women who are the heart and soul of parishes, schools
and hospitals.

The stunned sisters are debating how to respond after the Vatican’s
scorching reprimand to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious,
the main association of American Catholic nuns. The bishops were
obviously peeved that some nuns had the temerity to speak out in support
of President Obama’s health care plan, including his compromise on
contraception for religious hospitals.

The Vatican accused the nuns of pushing “radical feminist themes,”
and said they were not vocal enough in parroting church policy against
the ordination of women as priests and against abortion, contraception
and homosexual relationships.

In a blatant “Shut up and sit down, sisters” moment, the Vatican’s
doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, noted,
“Occasional public statements by the L.C.W.R. that disagree with or
challenge positions taken by the bishops, who are the church’s authentic
teachers of faith and morals, are not compatible with its purpose.”

Pope Benedict, who became known as “God’s Rottweiler” when he was
the cardinal conducting the office’s loyalty tests, assigned Archbishop
J. Peter Sartain of Seattle to crack down on the climate of “corporate
dissent” among the poor nuns.

When the nuns push for social justice, they’re put into stocks. Yet
Archbishop Sartain has led a campaign in Washington to reverse the
state’s newly enacted law allowing same-sex marriage, and he’s a church
hero.

Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, a Catholic
lobbying group slapped in the Vatican report, said it scares the church
hierarchy to have “educated women form thoughtful opinions and engage in
dialogue.”

She told NPR that it was ironic that church leaders were mad at
sisters over contraception when the nuns had committed to a celibate
life with no families or babies. Given the damage done by the pedophilia
scandals, she said, “the church’s obsession, at times, with the sexual
relationships is a serious problem...”

The pope needs what the rest of us got from nuns: a good rap across the knuckles."

(A version of this op-ed appeared in print on April 29, 2012, on page SR11 of the New York edition with the headline: Bishops Play Church Queens as Pawns.)

(The Inside Scoop on Vatican Attack on Nuns by Vatican Observer John Allen)"By far, the biggest
Vatican story at the moment in the American media market is an
announced overhaul of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the
main umbrella group for superiors of the roughly 400 women's orders in
the States. The move has been presented by the Vatican as a "reform" but
styled as a "crackdown" in most press coverage.As is by now well
known, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's
powerful doctrinal watchdog agency, has faulted LCWR for silence on
issues such as abortion and euthanasia, a climate of "corporate dissent"
on matters such as homosexuality and women's ordination, and the
inroads of "radical feminism." The congregation appointed Archbishop
James Peter Sartain of Seattle as its delegate to oversee reform, with
power to do things like reviewing documents before publication and
signing off on speakers for LCWR meetings..."

Keeping the record straight"Two brief observations are in order regarding coverage of the story to date.First, there's been
an understandable tendency to confuse the action regarding LCWR with
the broader apostolic visitation of women religious in America, which
was sponsored by the Congregation for Religious and is now closed. In
part, that's because both processes were announced at roughly the same
moment and have unfolded over the same span of time.An April 20 blog on "The Daily Beast" by
Barbie Latza Nadeau, for instance, suggested that Sr. Clare Millea, the
American sister tapped by the Congregation for Religious to run the
apostolic visitation, is somehow also responsible for the assessment of
the LCWR. (That piece, by the way, ran under the provocative headline
"Nuns Gone Wild!" and featured a picture of Millea.)

For the record, the
doctrinal review of LCWR and the visitation of women religious are two
separate things, and it's inaccurate to suggest that the LCWR overhaul
is a direct consequence of the visitation.

As an aside, it
might be worth keeping the visitation in mind in thinking about how
things with LCWR might shake out. When the visitation was announced in
early 2009, it produced a round of dismay and resentment in some
quarters similar to what's playing out today with regard to the LCWR.
Yet now that the visitation is over, many observers would say it wasn't
as traumatic as some early forecasts suggested.

At face value, the
Congregation for the Faith seems to have flung down a fairly dramatic
gauntlet to LCWR. Experience suggests, however, that sometimes things
that seem cataclysmic at the beginning have a way of becoming less so as
time rolls on.

Second, it's been
suggested that the move against LCWR amounts to payback for the more
favorable position many sisters in the States took on the Obama
administration's health care reform initiative, in contrast to the
American bishops.

No doubt the recent
flaps haven't helped, but on background Vatican officials insist that
the issues with LCWR involve longstanding concerns and are not driven by
current events.

Here's the chronology.

The Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith informed LCWR that it was launching a
doctrinal probe back in April 2008, before the health care reform debate
in the States heated up. Led by Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo, Ohio,
the review unfolded in 2009 and 2010. Its conclusions were actually
reached in January 2011, but the congregation decided to wait until the
apostolic visitation was over before presenting them.

Given that
timeline, the split over health care reform could perhaps more
accurately be seen as illustrating the tensions that led to the
doctrinal assessment rather than directly causing it.

A minor miracle

Whatever else comes
from the tumult, it's already prompted one minor miracle that most
Catholic observers probably thought they'd never live to see: Sr. Joan
Chittister and George Weigel actually agreeing on something.

Chittister, of
course, is a Benedictine and probably America's most prominent feminist
sister. Weigel, a biographer of John Paul II, is a champion of
orthodoxy. Politically speaking, they're usually matter and antimatter,
yet on the question of how LCWR ought to respond to its present
travails, they're on the same page.

Chittister made her comments in NCR's day-one story on
the Vatican announcement. In effect, she said LCWR ought to disband
canonically and then regroup outside the official structures of the
church. Doing so, she said, might be the only way to avoid "giving your
charism away" and "demeaning the ability of women to make distinctions."

In an April 23 essay for National Review,
Weigel wrote that Chittister's suggestion "had the virtue of honesty"
and "drew the curtain on a long-running charade" -- by which he meant
that in his opinion, LCWR is outside "the boundaries of Catholic
orthodoxy and orthopraxis," so dissolving its official status would be
recognizing reality.

To some, the fact
that prominent voices on both the Catholic left and right seem to be
reaching the same conclusion is a clear signal of where things stand:
For better or worse, the future of LCWR might not be within officialdom.

That, however, is not quite the tone Sartain has struck in his brief early comments. Speaking to the Catholic News Service in Rome earlier
this week, he said he hopes to help LCWR see "that we are all in this
together" and called the overhaul "a great opportunity [to] strengthen
and improve all of our relationships on every level."

(I contacted
Sartain to give him the chance to expand, but he said that out of
respect for the members of the LCWR board, who are scheduled to meet in
May, he doesn't want to say anything more for a while.)

Beyond "Vatican vs.
nuns" and "Rome vs. America," the fallout from the LCWR fracas thus
illustrates another persistent tension in Catholic life, between what
one might call the "prophetic" and "communal" instincts. The former
wants to push the church to realize the best version of itself (as a
given prophet might understand it), while the latter regards having a
place at the table as at least as important as getting one's own way.
Prophets want hard choices to be made while community folks are more
willing to tolerate compromise as the best way of holding the family
together.

The question now is
whether, vis-à-vis the LCWR, those instincts are necessarily in
conflict or whether there's a "both/and" solution waiting to be crafted."

[John L. Allen Jr. is NCR senior correspondent.)

Bridget Mary's Reflection:
It is hard to believe that Joan Chittister and George Weigel both reached the same conclusion.
But, it is logical and makes sense to me.
The LCWR should disband canonically and regroup as an independent association of women religious. This would chart a new path forward to freedom from Vatican control. And would offer the nuns more opportunities to continue their outstanding witness to Gospel justice on the margins with the marginalized. This would also give the nuns, called to ordination, an opportunity to publically live their vocations as priests. As I have said before the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priestss would welcome "nun-priests" as sisters on the journey who have been living their priesthood for a mighty long time!
Bridget Mary Meehan, Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, www.arcwp.org
sofiabmm@aol.com,703-505-0004